Pieces of Solaris
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: A human girl washes up on Bygone Island with no memory of how she got there. Elsewhere, Silver is looking for Soleanna's lost princess with the demon Mephiles in his shadow. Mephiles will harm anyone involved with the princess to free his brother Iblis. Can Team Sonic be able to help? [Boom centric with '06 elements][Complete][Read & Review]
1. A Storm in the Distance

"It looks like a storm is coming." Tails observed as he and his friends were relaxing on the beach. "A big one too."

"That's not a storm!" Sticks panicked when she looked up to see the sky, "It's a demon from another dimension coming to murder us all in our sleep!"

Everyone gave her a rather blank expression that demonstrated what they really thought of her idea.

"Let's pack our stuff up and get out of here. The bonfire can wait until tomorrow if the sky looks that bad." Sonic told his friends, to which they agreed. Except for Sticks...

"How can you not tell it's a demon?! It's coming right toward us! It's going to kill us all!"

Although the Sonic team was safe where they were for now- a ship far out was not as lucky. Caught in the middle, the little ship rocked violently as the waves crashed and thrashed. On board, the passengers weren't as easygoing either.

"He's catching up Silver!" a young human woman shouted through the storm as she tried to pilot the ship. "We're not going to be able to outrun him!"

The near while hedgehog accompanying her looked up at the sky dimly.

"We won't be able to outrun him." the hedgehog told her, "Brace yourself!"

The young woman nodded as the sea started to rock the boat at a rougher tension than before. The sudden blow had made her lose her balance- the force flew off of the ship's wheel and on the deck with a sickening crack. Attentive to the situation, Silver rushed over to her to make sure she was okay. For a moment, he was sure she was out of it as she lay on the deck.

"Elise!" Silver said in a near fear as he shook the young woman to wake her back up. The rain did not help the situation as it hit against their bodies like little poking pins. Slowly, the young woman did wake up and she groaned in doing so because of the considerable pain she was in.

"Silver," Elise mumbled as she woke, "Mephiles... he's..."

"I know." Silver grimly agreed as a crack of thunder sounded more like a sinister laugh. Silver helped get Elise on her feet again before he tried to hand her a small scepter. "Take this and get below lower deck before he gets on board."

Elise looked at the scepter then looked at Silver with an unreadable expression.

"I'm not leaving you." she told him with a shake of her head.

"Elise!" Silver snapped at her, "I don't know whether you're trying to be brave or stupid, but I _need_ you to go below deck so I can handle Mephiles!"

A flash of lighting and a crack of thunder nearby made Silver and Elise cover their eyes- when they opened them again, something that held a texture not quite smoke but not quite liquid was on the deck. The substance was piling itself together as it emitted a cruel laugh that send shivers down the hedgehog and young woman's spines. Silver shoved the scepter into Elise's hand and prepared to fight as the substance started to take form of another hedgehog- this one without a mouth and its dark fur was tangled and knotted as if the corpse had been run over by a quick moving vehicle.

"You thought you could escape me?" the corpse asked in a malicious tone. "I am Mephiles the Dark, born from Solaris of Soleanna, will not be stopped at the mere destruction of his home!"

"It was my home too!" Elise shouted in anger and defense. Mephiles turned to look at her and gave a shallow chuckle.

"How could I forget Princess," Mephiles started, "Your father was the one who gave birth to me and my brother Iblis. He was the one who split us from our true form! He was the one who gave birth by killing Solaris! And _you_... Heh, what a good father- he trapped my brother inside of you to keep him from me!"

"And you still won't have him Mephiles!" Silver declared as he pulled out a sky blue gem. Even though the sky was dark with the storm clouds, the diamond cut gem glowed brilliantly as if it were under a shining sun.

"You have the...!" Mephiles started to exclaim, but was cut off when Silver tossed the gem toward Elise. The young woman caught it with surprise with one hand, due to the other still holding the scepter- then gave Silver an even more bewildered look.

"Silver, I can't take these!" she said frantically as she looked from the gem to the scepter then back at Silver again.

"You will!" Silver demanded as he raised a hand to telekinetically shove her off the boat. Elise let out a scream as she flew through the air with the gem and scepter clenched in her hands before crashing into the ocean.

"You fool!" Mephiles screeched with rage. "If she dies, Iblis will never be freed!"

"Then I suppose you need to go in after her." Silver stated in a dark tone. "And you're not going anywhere while I'm still standing!"

Mephiles growled.

"Fine. But I won't promise your bones will be in your body when I'm through with you!"

"Bring it on." Silver taunted.

Mephiles let out a horrible sound that was heard for miles beyond them as he lunged at Silver. Mercilessly, the shadow demon attacked- leaving Silver without a moment to breathe or defend himself.

"You thought you could take me on alone?" Mephiles asked as he lifted Silver by the head to look him in the eye. "I'll find her, then Iblis and I will be one again!"

With a sinister chuckle, Mephiles tossed Silver to the side as the demon melted into a fog form that disappeared into the sea. Struggling, Silver tried to look out into the ocean to where he had pushed Elise. He couldn't see her, and now that common sense was upon him, he realized that what he had done might not have been the best thing to do.

"Elise..." Silver mumbled as his consciousness slipped in and out, "Don't... let go... and... and don't... cry... I'll... I'll find you..."

Back on shore, the Sonic team had gotten all of their things and began to head back home. The wind was picking up more violently now- and even though they didn't believe what Sticks had said, there was definitely a certain feeling in the air that could have predicted imminent doom.


	2. Empty Apologies

The next morning, Sonic went along the beach alone. The storm had done a number on the poor shore side -not that Sonic had known that earlier- and it prevented Sonic's plan of practicing laps due to the mass amount of debris.

They could still have a bonfire later that day though, if he cleaned up a bit.

Although it hadn't been the workout Sonic had been expecting, it did prove to buy some time and waste the morning. Sonic was working hard enough to repair the beach that he didn't noticed the long pile of mass by the shore until after he tripped over it. Even then, he still wasn't convinced at what he saw. The mass groaned in pain, which alerted Sonic that maybe it was alive after all.

"What the...!" Sonic said in surprise when he uncovered the mass. It was a human female with cherry red hair and a very pixie-like face. As Sonic carefully turned her over so she was on her back so he could check for a pulse, she started to stir from her rather comatose state.

"Silver...?" the young woman asked in a dim voice as she struggled to open her eyes, "I... I can't..."

"My name isn't..." Sonic started to say, but the lost track of what he was saying when he realized she wasn't exactly in the right mind at the moment.

"I wonder if Tails would approve another roommate." Sonic said to himself as he tried to pick up the young woman. "_Any_ human has _got _to be better than Eggman."

After struggling to get a good grasp on the decently weighed human, Sonic looked at her face as she started to open her eyes long enough for him to see them roll back into her skull.

"Emerald... destruction..." the young woman said as she winched in pain. One of her hands, that was resting in her lap, opened slowly to reveal that she had been holding onto a sky blue, diamond cut gem. Sonic was amazed to see it and looked at the young woman with almost the same amount of interest.

"Maybe I've bitten off more than I could chew..." Sonic decided. But then, the young woman smiled in her semi-comatose state that made Sonic receive an unconscious jolt of adrenaline.

Whether or not she'd make a good roommate right now wasn't the reason why Sonic was helping her- she was in pain and she needed care. By her having a pretty face though, admittedly helped his decision a bit more.

. . .

Silver would admit to having a lot of rather idiotic ideas. Thrusting both the Scepter of Darkness and the gem into Elise's care before tossing her off the boat was an idea that was going to haunt him for a long time. As much as he wanted Mephiles to lose, and have Iblis gone forever, he felt close enough to Elise that he didn't want to see that happen at her death. Silver had already lost a friend due to his poor ideas- now she was in another dimension with no memory of him.

The boat, as luck would have it, drifted toward the shore as the storm died down over night. Silver still lay on the deck, too sore and bruised from his fight from Mephiles to even attempt to sit up. It wasn't until morning as the cool sea breeze ran across the seashore when Silver thought he was able to stand. With some difficulty, Silver stood up and collected his barrings about the new surroundings. The unfamiliar landscape made Silver groan- it was going to take forever for him to get around. He knew had to teleport to get where he needed to go faster, but in an unfamiliar terrain (and therefore a different map) it would be useless if he didn't know where he was going.

Well, if you were going to start anywhere, might as well start by finding civilization.

. . .

"Elise..." a voice called from the flames. "Elise..."

The flames were taller than the highest building in Soleanna as they consumed everything and turned it into ash. Thousands of people were screaming- men, children, and woman alike were all in pain as the fire ate away at their skin like a hungry lion.

"Elise..."

She wanted to resist the temptation, but it would have been just so easy to release Iblis now- to set right what once went wrong. Then Solaris could reform into his true power and reset the world to the way it was intended. In being the Princess of Soleanna, she would naturally take over the throne as Solaris's physical shell to lead the new people into their renewed world. The new citizens of Soleanna would rise in the world and everyone would see this grand power and bow at its sight.

"Don't cry!" a new voice said in the destruction. She squinted through the destruction to see a familiar figure. A part of her growled with anger in seeing him, the other part felt relief- a liberation from destruction, almost.

"Elise..." the first, original voice moaned again- this time with some anger hinted at the intervention.

"Silver...?!" she called out in a small voice- it seemed to be useless though, it was if something was holding her back from speaking with free will. "I can't fight him!"

"You can, you need to push past him like you always have."

"No!" the original voice growled. "You can't have her!"

The flames reigning Soleanna became taller as the fire started to eat away at her own flesh. Trying to mentally push away the flames did not work in her favor as she helplessly watched as the fire stripped away her skin.

Catapulting from her sleep, Elise woke up with a start. Within the next second, she realized something; she had no memory of anything other than her own name. However, as she looked around, she realized that -although she had no memory at the moment- she was sure she had never been a place like this before.

"Y-you're awake." someone said from nearby in surprise. Elise slowly turned her head until her eyes trained on a small yellow fox with two tails.

"I scared you." Elise observed shamefully. "I'm sorry..."

"No, no, no- you didn't scare me!" the fox proclaimed as he walked over to her. But then he thought about it. "Okay, yeah, you kinda did. But you were saying some pretty weird things! Like, _really_ weird!"

"I'm sorry..." Elise mumbled as she started to curl herself into a ball with embarrassment. The fox kid picked up on this quickly and waved his hands to show that it was all good.

"Don't be sorry!" he said. "Here, we've gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm Tails."

"I..." Elise started to say, but lost track. She didn't have much to say about herself other than her name, and it kind of annoyed her. Tails tilted his head at her curiously, unsure of what to do when it seemed like she had gotten stuck in her train of thought.

"Are you alright?" Tails asked with a genuinely concerned tone. Elise nodded.

"My name is Elise." she finally said. "I'm sorry if I..."

"Stop saying that!" Tails told her, "You don't need to be sorry for anything!"

"I..." Elise started to say but caught herself. Tails looked at her like he was going to get mad, but to her surprise he started to laugh. Slowly, the corner of Elise's mouth started to smile and she began to laugh as well.

"Wait there," Tails then told her, "I'll get Sonic and the others. Everyone's been waiting for you to wake up- I'll go get them, but I need you to stay here. Okay?"

Elise nodded at him to show that she understood. Tails smiled at her, then ran out the door to get his friends. Elise watched him with a little wonder, but she thought of something that was sure to be brought up later; she was without memory, except for her own name. How was she going to explain this when they started asking her questions about where she came from? _She_ didn't even know where she came from! Well, from here she only had two options;

Lie, or hope they believed what little truth she had.


	3. Silver is Synonymous with Trouble

One look, and a silent vow was made to never let Sticks be around Elise again.

Well, to be honest, Sticks didn't even begin to start going off the rails (more so than usual) until the door opened. But even with that in mind, what the badger did was so incoherent and outlandish that Knuckles had to forcefully escort her away from the property. The uneasiness of the situation did not go away easily either- the truth being that, although they did not know her, she still had the potential to harm them all. The only other human they interacted with on a normal basis was Eggman, right? So how would they know they could trust this one?

Unfortunately, Elise knew the odds were against her. And when she told them what little story she had to tell, the looks they gave her were not the most kindest or trusting.

"So... you can't remember _anything_?" Amy Rose carefully asked.

"Nothing." Elise agreed. "Except for my name and..."

"And what?" Tails asked.

Elise did not answer at first, instead her eyes drifted to the coffee table in front of the couch she was sitting on. A sparkling sky blue gem sat on the table as if it were illuminated by the sun. Elise looked at it and stared as a small fragment of her memory came back.

"Elise?" Sonic inquired with a tilt of his head. Elise snapped out of her trance and looked at Sonic, Tails, and Amy with a rather pale face.

"The Emerald, where did you find it?" Elise asked.

"Emerald?" Amy repeated in confusion, "What emerald?"

"This." Elise said as she picked up the gem.

"Not to be rude, but aren't emeralds pigmented green?" Tails inquired, meaning no harm.

"Well... yeah." Elise admitted, "But this one's special. It does... something..."

"Something?" Tails repeated, not sure whether to be irritated or amused.

"Something." Elise agreed as she started to carefully trace the cut lines on the gem. "I can't remember what it does, but I know it does _something_."

"Well that helps." Amy retorted.

"Sorry I can't remember anything to your liking." Elise shot back. "But we've gotten off subject; where did you find this gem?"

"It was with you." Sonic spoke up, rather offended by the way she had spoke to Amy. "When I found you on the beach, it was in your hands as you mumbled something about destruction."

"Destruction..." Elise said under her breath as she inspected the gem more. The longer she looked at it, the more she thought she was able to see a figure inside. The figure started to grow more distinct and recognizable until she remembered another little fragment of memory.

"I need to find Silver!" Elise exclaimed as she stood up quickly in revelation. From standing up so quickly, a part of her dress started to fall away -having been badly torn before she washed up on shore- that nearly revealed her entire upper torso. Amy quickly reacted by covering Tails's eyes, and although he stared for maybe too long, Sonic rushed to get Elise a blanket to modestly cover her again.

"You're not going anywhere until you're decently dressed." Amy told Elise as she slowly uncovered Tails's eyes. For a moment, Elise held a face of pure panic -most of it came from recognizing Silver, but not knowing who exactly he was- but she also realized that Amy was right.

"Fine..." Elise mumbled like a little kid who didn't get their way.

"Besides," Amy added, "It's not like your Silver could get in a lot of trouble without you- right?"

To be honest, Elise realized that she didn't even know the answer to that one.

. . .

"Sonic's been rather quiet lately." Doctor Eggman said to himself rather pleasantly. Orbot and Cubot looked at each other with a certain degree of fear- whenever Eggman was that pleasant, certainly nothing good would come from it.

"The storm did quite a large amount of damage last night, my best arsenal may not be up to par to the standards I have set."

"Not that they were very high to begin with if Sonic is able to destroy them." Orbot whispered to Cubot.

"I heard that!" Eggman thundered, making his robot servants tremble in fear. Interrupting his threat, the door bell went off. Instantly, Eggman went to the monitors to see who was at the door. Imagine ol' Egghead's surprise when he saw a white hedgehog standing outside the lair door looking very confused and even more anxious.

"Are we going to let him in?" Cubot asked.

"Depends..." Eggman said as he stroked his mustache in thought before pulling up the intercom connected to the main door.

"What are you doing at the great lair of the feared Doctor Eggman?!" Eggman shouted flamboyantly into the intercom, making the white hedgehog outside jump a little with surprise.

"I... uh..." the hedgehog started to say as he got his face really close to the intercom camera. "I'm looking for someone... a, um, a girl."

"Aren't we all?" Orbot said wistfully, which earned him a rather nasty kick from Eggman.

"Well," the hedgehog continued, "She and I came on the same boat together when the storm came around last night, and we ended up wrecking rather badly. And, um, I was wondering if you may have seen her... around here...?"

"I don't get many visitors." Eggman claimed. "Ladies are a true rarity around here- and if I ever found one, why would I tell _you_ about it?"

"Please," the hedgehog begged, although grudgingly, "She's a princess of a far away land, and she's being hunted by monster who would do anything to see the world engulfed in flames. I don't care if you're most wanted around here or not- I _need_ to find her _now_!"

The mad doc stroked his mustache again in thinking.

"Is this princess... special?" Eggman asked.

"Yes." the hedgehog responded with a blunt expression. "And if she cries when the monster is near her, she will unleash a demon that will make Hell look like paradise."

"No fooling!" Eggman exclaimed with impressed surprise.

"If I was 'fooling' with you, I would have burst through this door hours ago."

Now impressed with this hedgehog's wit (and the promise of having a potent hell-raiser on his side) Eggman pressed the button for the lair's main doors to open. As the hedgehog slowly and carefully started to walk inside, Eggman added one more thing over the intercom;

"I can help you find your princess, if you can help me with a small problem of my own..."


	4. Feeding the Demon

"I appreciate the effort Amy, but..."

After squeezing Elise into one of Knuckles's old bathrobes and using what was left of her torn dress to cover her torso and buttock, respectively, Amy had gotten Elise to a clothing store. It took some time to find things that Elise was able to wear due to her size and how uncommon her human frame was around here, but Amy was a fashionable genius and did eventually find something that could fit Elise's frame. Elise's thoughts on Amy's fashion sense were not as accepting, and she had mixed ideas about what Amy wanted her to walk around in.

"You look pretty Elise!" Amy gushed, "Be proud, show it off, make some boy jealous when you tell him you're taken!"

"But... I'm not taken, I don't think..."

"You will be soon enough!" Amy declared. Elise let out a discomforted little groan and looked at herself in the full length mirror.

Amy had found Elise a white dress that was cut about an inch or two off her knee- the bottom skirt of the dress was decorated with a mixture of white porcupine quills and blue bird feathers, the bodice boasted a sweetheart neckline and adorned with a gold trim. Her sleeves were off the shoulder and cut asymmetrical to the palm of her hand, the edges of the sleeves were gold trimmed as well. For shoes, Amy had found a pair of heeled ankle boots colored blue with a little white mixed in at the sole. The accessories had been Amy's favorite part of the whole redressing, not that she ended up giving Elise a lot- there was a corset styled belt colored a gold-ish brown, and a necklace with a rather simple design that resembled bird's wings.

Elise didn't like it very much, but it was better than going around naked... right?

"Come on," Amy then said as she took Elise by the wrist, "Everyone's waiting outside to see what you look like!"

"They... are...?" Elise said in fear as Amy dragged her out the door.

Sure enough, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and surprisingly Sticks were outside waiting for Amy and Elise to come back out.

"Introducing," Amy said in a flourish, "The now properly dressed, and five percent cuter, Madame Elise of She-can't-remember-where!"

Elise refused to look at anyone as they silently made their judgment on her new look. Something about Amy's introduction seemed familiar, but it didn't make the situation any less embarrassing on her part. No one said anything to her new appearance either, which slowly started to make Amy feel insecure about herself.

"You look good." Sonic finally said, sounding rather truthful. Unintentionally, Elise's face flushed a deep red color.

"Thanks." Elise mumbled with a teeny tiny smile. Sonic scratched the back of his head with an apparent mixture of shame and embarrassment.

"No problem." he mumbled back sheepishly.

. . .

"Oh, do it again!" Eggman told Silver ecstatically like a little girl shown a magic trick. In reality, the hedgehog had demonstrated some of his abilities that could be used in Eggman's plan to capture Sonic. Poor Silver, working off the one assumption that Eggman's arch enemy would know where Elise was when he wasn't even sure the mad doc was in the right mind to begin with. Then again, he was a _mad_ doctor...

"I'm not doing that again." Silver told Eggman in a blunt and irritated tone. "Unless you want to get thrown off your precarious little hill, of course."

"But then you won't be able to find your cursed princess." Eggman rebutted. Silver let out an irritated grunt when he saw the truth in what Eggman was saying, and he said nothing further in the discussion.

"Excuse me, mister Silver," Orbot said, poking Silver once to gain attention, "But are you aware that your shadow is quite... peculiar..?"

"My shadow?" Silver asked, looking down. "What could be wrong with my shadow? It look the same in always does."

"Well," Orbot began, "Despite the fact that the lighting is too poor in this room for any of us to visibly have one- yours seem to, um, not match your own silhouette."

Silver looked at the robot like it was losing a few bolts then looked down at his shadow. Sure, it did seem odd that it was fully visible while everyone else's weren't as distinguished, but he did not see a difference in the shape.

"My shadow looks fine." Silver insisted.

"Okay then..." Orbot agreed uncertainly, sure that he wasn't processing the information wrong. The hedgehog gave the robot a quizzical look before turning back to Eggman's next plan. Not that Silver believed it was going to accomplish much, but standing idle wasn't going to find Elise any faster either...

. . .

Sonic was walking back to his house when Sticks attacked him.

"What the...! Sticks get off!" Sonic demanded as Sticks pinched Sonic in every place imaginable.

"The demon is getting to you!" Sticks declared. "You're giving it what it wants!"

"What demon?! Sticks, get off of me NOW!"

"Not until that demon's influence on you is broken and it's gone for good!"

After a good amount of struggling, Sonic was able to get the crazy badger off of him.

"Don't you see it?" Sticks frantically demanded. "The demon wants control of your mind so you like her and then it can use you to set it free! Don't let it control you! Don't blink, blink and you're dead! Don't think about it! The demon will destroy us all if you feed it after midnight!"

"Look, Sticks, I know this... demon is freaking you out," Sonic started to say in an attempt to reason with her, "But there isn't a demon around here. The only one new is Elise, and she sure isn't demon-like at all."

"She...! It...!" Sticks started to say, but let out a frustrated growl instead.

Sonic looked at Sticks as she tried hard to keep several opinions and even more choice words inside her head.

"Fine." Sticks growled. "If you're going to be blind, don't come crying to me when fire falls from the sky!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Sonic told her. Sticks gave Sonic a rather horrifying glare as she let out another growl in anger.


	5. She Warned Him

Sonic came into his home to find Tails and Elise laughing it up on the couch.

"And then I told him, that's not Mega Man, it's Rock!" Tails said to Elise as he finished his joke. Elise couldn't help put let out a welcoming laughter that made the skin on Sonic's back stand up. It wasn't a bad feeling, but it certainly wasn't very familiar.

"Thank you, thank you." Tails laughed. "Do you know any stories Elise?"

Elise slowly stopped laughing as she thought about it.

"I think I do." she said, sounding amazed with herself. "Do you want to hear it?"

"Yes!" Tails agreed eagerly.

"Hang on," Sonic told them as he came over to the couch, "I want to hear this too."

"Of course." Elise agreed with a smile. After Sonic was comfortable, Elise cleared her throat and started to recite as well as she could;

"The princess of Soleanna was a delightful little girl; she sang and danced, and her hair held a little curl. But when her father passed away; the young princess came in his stay- now we all live happily in town, as long as our young princess never, ever frowns."

For a moment, Sonic and Tails said nothing. Elise smiled from her recite, and their odd looks did not damper her spirit.

"Everyone in Soleanna knows it." Elise claimed. "In fact, it's recited every year on my birthday."

"Why is it recited on _your_ birthday?" Tails asked curiously. For a moment, Elise looked as if she had the answer, but realized she did not.

"I... can't remember." Elise admitted in confusion.

"You must have been pretty important if they recited a poem for you on your birthday." Sonic suggested. Elise shook her head.

"No..." she said, "There's another reason. I thought I knew why for a moment..."

"Forget about it." Sonic told her with a hand wave. "It's not that big of a deal, really."

The corner of Elise's mouth twitched in thought, but she nodded her head to show she understood. Her eyes started to focus toward the window as she thought of what she really couldn't remember at this point. It was like there was a wall in her memory that prevented her from knowing, truly, what she did remember. The feeling made her upset and angry- but a part of her accepted it as fact, and it was kept at that.

"Can I go to the beach?" Elise asked, coming out of her thoughts.

"Yeah." Tails and Sonic said at the same time using the exact same tone.

"You're free to do whatever you want around here," Sonic told her as if it were common knowledge, "No one can tell you were to go if you don't want to."

"So you'll come with me then?" Elise asked with a sincere honesty. Sonic stared at her, unsure of what to say or of why she would want him to come along. Elise only smiled back as she waited for an answer.

. . .

Silver was watching the citizens in town as he waited for Eggman to give the signal. Enough to stir up some trouble and make Sonic and his friends come to save everyone- that was what he and Eggman had agreed to. Somehow, Silver didn't think everything was going to go as planned and Eggman was just saying whatever he could to get Silver on his side. It worked, unfortunately, and Silver wasn't feeling good about this plan at all. But the hedgehog had made a promise ten years ago that he'd do whatever it took to protect Elise, and although scaring a bunch of villagers on a lone island didn't seem like the best way to go about it, Silver knew he'd find her again. By force, if he needed.

He just hoped things wouldn't escalate to that kind of decision...

. . .

"The water looks so calm and inviting." Elise remarked.

"To you, maybe," Sonic replied in dead pan snark, "To me, it's a prison."

"Is it because you can't run on it?" Elise asked in a taunting tone, with a smirk on her lips. Sonic gave her with a nasty glare, but it did not break her assumption. Instead, she started to laugh at him, sending a chill up Sonic's spine at the sound.

"Then go drown!" Sonic declared, "See if I care when you think it becomes a prison too!"

Elise looked at him in a mischievous sort of way as if she was accepting the challenge. Then the human did something that Sonic was left speechless; Elise started to undress from her outfit in front of him. Immediately, the hedgehog closed his eyes and used his hands to shield him from what he could only assume was Elise's bravery and stupidity.

"What are you doing?" she laughed as she tried to get him to uncover his hands, but he was strong despite being half her size.

"I'm not looking while you go skinny dipping." Sonic claimed. Elise laughed at him again.

"Who said anything about skinny dipping?" she inquired in a rather confused tone. Confused, Sonic uncovered his eyes and looked at Elise. Apparently, under her outfit she had on a rather modest bathing suit. The sight of it made Sonic both relieved and even more confused.

"Of course," Elise started to say in a mischievous tone, "I could take you up on the offer later tonight if it's on your mind."  
"What?!" Sonic instantly reacted, his face growing red. "I'm not... I wasn't, well, I was... BUT NOT LIKE THAT... and..."

For the third time that day, Elise laughed at him again. Sonic let out a nervous laughter as well as his face became beet red. In the distance, the sounds of the citizens in town interrupted Sonic and Elise's moment. Both of them looked out in confusion and interest.

"What's going on?" Elise asked.

"Sounds like they need help." Sonic said.

"Then let's go help." Elise suggested. Sonic turned to look at her to find that she was already redressed. "Besides, we have a date later any way."

At her comment, unconsciously Sonic's face grew to be a deep red again.

"Right..." he sheepishly agreed. "Date... Heh, we're gonna have to talk about the usage of that word later..."


	6. Sonic's Anti-Climatic Curb Stomp Defeat

Turns out Silver was very good at scaring the living daylights out of mild mannered citizens. It didn't give him the same enjoyment that it was apparently giving Eggman, but at least things were going according to schedule. From the back of his vision as he helped Eggman's robots rampage the village, Silver made sure that no one was getting hurt and out of harm's way. Using his abilities for too long became taxing, it was an annoyance as much as it was a breather from the action.

Admittedly, it didn't take that long for Silver to notice the blue blur that Eggman had described as Sonic coming. But Silver saw someone with the blue hedgehog as he set them down at a safe point far enough away; Elise. For a moment, Silver was relieved to see that she was well, but the next he was furious. Silver had made Eggman agree that they wait for Sonic to come to the battlefield before doing anything drastic- but that was before Silver knew Sonic did have Elise.

Using his telekenetic powers, Silver forcefully made Sonic come down to the battlefield and slammed him into the ground next to him. Sonic groaned from the impact, but he got up relatively quickly.

"Nice to meet you too," Sonic retorted as he got up, "My name's Sonic by the way."

"I am Silver." Silver said curtly. "And you have Soleanna's reigning monarch, Princess Elise the Third."

"Wait, wait, wait- Elise is a princess?"

"And the only survivor of Soleanna's demise."

Sonic gave Silver a dumbfounded look and for a long time said nothing. Silver was not patient enough to wait for Sonic to process everything, so Silver started to attack without mercy. For a split second in between attack, Sonic caught his breath, aimed for an open spot, and spin dashed into Silver as hard as he could. Silver was knocked back for a moment while Sonic prepared to spin dash into him again. Silver had a quick mind and stopped Sonic just mere centimeters from spin dashing into Silver again.

"It's no use!" Silver declared with a laugh. Frozen in Silver's control, Sonic's eyes illustrated his fear and panic without being able to fully express it. Silver let out a rather nasty laugh as he tossed Sonic up in the air then slammed him into the ground.

"Now," Silver started to say as he marched close to the blue hedgehog in preparation to launch a final blow. "Let's see if you got the message yet."

"Wait!" someone declared before getting in between Sonic and Silver. "Don't hurt him!"

Upon seeing who it was, Silver let down his guard.

"Elise?"

"Silver?" she asked in return. Then a light bulb switched on in her mind and a big smile stretched across her face. "Silver!"

Before either Sonic or Silver had time to react, the human girl ran to give Silver a warm and welcoming hug- the force of which made Silver lose his balance and both of them ended up on the ground. Elise cuddled Silver like he was a big, oversized stuffed teddy bear- Silver, although surprised, gave Elise a hug back. His hug was of mutual affection, but not in desperate like hers seemed to be. Sonic looked at the two with the most confused look he could give.

"I'm glad you're safe Princess." Silver told her as they slowly started to separate from their hug. Elise gave Silver a rather confused look.

"I... I'm a princess?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused. Silver in turn gave her a rather hard look.

"Yes, Elise." Silver said to her, started to sound a bit angry. "You are the princess of Soleanna, a fallen kingdom taken by Mephiles the Dark. Tell me you're joking."

Elise shook her head slowly.

"Silver, I'm having a hard time remembering your name- I don't know where Soleanna is, I just remembered the name hours ago truthfully. I don't know who Mephiles is or what happened to Soleanna, I... I barely know _you_."

Silver backed away from Elise a bit to get a better look at her face, to make sure she wasn't lying to him. She wasn't, and in horror Silver turned around to give Sonic a horrifying stare that illustrated what he wanted to do to him.

"Oh no, don't look at me like that!" Sonic exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air to claim innocence. "_I_ did not do _anything_ to her!"

Silver did not seem to be listening, and was seething in so much anger that he was grinding his teeth.

"He's telling the truth." Elise agreed, looking at Silver cautiously. "Although I can't remember much, I know I can trust you. Sonic saved me, if he was the one that took away my memory, why would he go through the trouble of making sure I was fine after?"

Silver shot a look at Elise, then looked back at Sonic again.

"And you trust him completely?" Silver asked.

"Like a knight." Elise nodded. Silver let out a sigh as his anger diffused somewhat.

"Alright." he agreed. "Sonic is an ally. Now that I know you're safe Elise, it's time to end that deal with Eggman."

Within a single wave of his hand, Silver made all of Eggman's robots in the village float in the air then combust into a million different fragments that fell to the ground like snow. In another wave of the hand, the fragments gathered together and met their final ends into nearby recycle bins.

"What about ol' Egghead himself?" Sonic inquired with a smirk.

"He'll get the message." Silver decided. "If he can't figure it out, maybe he'd like to get whipped around a little. Speaking of which, sorry about that."

"I'd like to say no hard feelings," Sonic spat, "But you were my enemy for all of five minutes, and although I am a rather forgiving hedgehog, whatever you did _hurt_!"

Silver smirked.

"Well, it would teach you to never make me mad, now would it?"

Sonic looked at Silver for a moment, then let out a small chuckle.


	7. It's Hard to Forget

It was around midnight when Sonic woke to a rather terrible sound- like a cat dying from underneath a bus full of passengers. Investigating a bit further, Sonic found that it was Elise who was thrashing around as if she was having a seizure. In panic and fear, Sonic rushed to Elise's side and started to wake her up.

"Elise! Wake up! Elise wake up, it's just a dream!" Sonic frantically said as he shook her. Slowly, Elise started to stir, and her body relaxed as she came out of her nightmare. She mumbled some incoherent words before turning to look at Sonic lazily.

"Silver...?" Elise said to Sonic in a drowsy tone, "I want to go home..."

For a moment, Sonic wasn't sure what to say. Didn't Silver mention earlier that her home was destroyed?

"Elise, my name is Sonic, remember?" the blue hedgehog said as he carefully pushed a small strand of hair out of her face. Elise blinked a little when she felt more awake.

"I know that." she told him carefully. "But... but Silver is here, isn't he?"

Sonic nodded, to which Elise let out a sigh of relief.

"Do you need to see him?" Sonic asked, feeling concerned for the human. Elise shook her head slowly.

"No... I would worry him." she said. "I worried you, didn't I?"

"You sounded like a dying cat, how could I _not_ be worried?"

Elise smiled and let out a rather uneasy chuckle. Sonic watched her as she laid back and tried to close her eyes again. But it was difficult for her to go back to sleep, and she soon sat up again with her fingers massaging her temples as if she were in pain. Sonic started to raise his hand so he could give her some support, but decided against it at last moment and put his hand back down at his side.

"Fire... People... People on fire..." she mumbled in pain, "Why can I, but can't...?"

Admittedly, Sonic had no idea what to do for her or how to make her better. For now all he could do was sit there and hope his mere presence was enough to calm her down. It wasn't, so Sonic came up with another idea. Without warning, Sonic scooped Elise up and started to bolt out the door.

"What are you doing?!" Elise asked as Sonic started to reach his top speed. He didn't answer her, but gave her a little wouldn't-you-like-to-know smirk and kept going. Elise braced herself by holding on to him tighter, finding that she had no other choice but to trust where he was going.

. . .

"How can you just forget what happened?" Silver asked himself as he sat by the shore. "All those people..."

It was very late, and Silver couldn't go to sleep- almost for the same reason why Elise woke up. Unknown to him, Stick was coming over to him looking mildly sour and holding something awfully familiar. Unceremoniously, the badger dropped the object on Silver, which almost made him go on defensive to launch her into the air. One wild look at Sticks, then at what she dropped on him, Silver almost had the urge to kiss her feet in gratitude; Sticks had given Silver the Scepter of Darkness back.

"Where did you find this?" Silver asked- partially in demand, the other in sheer relief. Sticks only gave Silver a hard stare and did not answer. At least, not directly.

"Kill it." she demanded. Silver looked at the Scepter of Darkness, then looked back at Sticks with a rather confused face. The sight made Sticks growl in frustration.

"Use the magicky wand to kill the demon!" Sticks demanded, this time with more anger.

"What demon?" Silver asked in a moment of pure stupidity. Sticks growled again, this time taking Silver's head and almost snapping it in the direction of Sonic's hut.

"That one!" Sticks told Silver in a completely irritable tone. Silver had to think about it for a moment, but when the revelation came to him he nearly smacked himself on the forehead.

"The Scepter of Darkness wasn't made for Iblis." Silver said, almost about to laugh. Stick's frustration almost instantly melted away, but became confusion in its stead.

"Explain." Sticks told Silver as she plopped down beside him.

"Well..." Silver started to say, "I don't know how you're able to guess it, but you are right- the Scepter of Darkness is for a demon, but not for Iblis, who is inside Elise right now. No, the Scepter of Darkness is meant to trap Mephiles the Dark, Iblis's brother of sorts. They were once the same entity -an immortal being the citizens of Soleanna called Solaris- but they were forced apart by Elise's father, who died shortly thereafter for his meddling. We were able to contain Iblis inside Elise's soul, but Mephiles got away before we could trap him within the Scepter. Are you... following all this...?"

"In and out." Sticks admitted, looking as if she was enjoying a good story. "Continue."

Silver looked back at Sticks warily, but continued nonetheless.

"A few days ago, Mephiles decided to return to public view. An hour later, the citizens of Soleanna where on fire and in a panic. I found Elise and we were able to successfully make it out alive... but the others..."

Silver stopped himself as he shivered from the mere thought of trying to remember what had happened. Sticks looked at him patiently, yet rather methodically.

"He's following you." Sticks said in a dark tone. Silver looked at Sticks with a confused glare. Wordlessly, the badger pointed down at the ground, that was when Silver realized that something was wrong; although a full moon was out without a cloud in sight, Silver did not have a shadow. Suddenly, Silver's vision swam in darkness as he started to feel dizzy and sick all at once.

"No...!"

. . .

"Wow..." Elise said in wonder as she and Sonic stared up at the night sky.

"Amy liked it too," Sonic told her simply enough. "Dunno why though. Must be a girl thing or something."

Elise turned her head to look at Sonic with a small, playful smile. Sonic happened to look over at her and a sudden chill ran down his back seeing her smile at him like that. In a way, for a moment, he entertained the idea that he, maybe, loved her.

Meanwhile, behind a tree and hidden in the shadows, Mephiles watched the couple with great and sinister interest.

"Good work brother," he said to no one in particular, "Blocking her memories and securing your eventual rebirth. I will help you of course, but time is of the essence- no one must know of our plan to burn this island to the ground. Wait just a little longer Iblis, soon you will be free..."


	8. Pardon Our Princess, She Bites

_10 Years Ago _

_Kingdom Valley; Castle of Reigning Monarch, Duke Venetian of Soleanna_

_. . ._

The Duke was kind, but warily stern toward Silver. He had all right to do so, really, considering the hedgehog had appeared out of the blue, and Princess Elise was the first one to meet his acquaintance... not that the meeting had gone over very well either. Never mind that she was only six years old, the Princess of Soleanna was _tough_!

Regardless, Silver stood awkwardly in front of the Duke's throne as he awaited whatever punishment the Duke had in mind for him. What was a little life sentence compared to losing your only friend in a deal with the devil? Would it be worth it to have given up that friendship for the ability to manipulate time and space with a single thought in your head (and a little help from a Chaos Emerald)? Silver was soon finding that he would rather have Blaze beside him in a horrendous wasteland, then having an angry little princess glaring at him by her father's throne.

"I believe you claimed your name was Silver," the Duke said in a loud, booming, and powerful tone, "Is that correct?"

"Yes sir." Silver agreed in a soft tone, feeling rather like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

_My name is Silver of Crisis City, your grace, the meek and the mild... your grace. I meant no harm in what I did when I, like, destroyed several of your fancy, shiny buildings in the city by mistake and in fear... It was all an accident, your grace, please have mercy._

"Silver, what you did earlier today is inexcusable and cost us a lot of resources that cannot be easily replaced."

"I understand your grace."

"Under normal circumstances, such destruction could vary from a lifetime in jail to more severe courses of action; the death sentence, as it may be in this particular case."

Silver went pale, but the Duke chose to ignore this and continued on,

"However, you were given a special pardon that prevents any of these normally agreed on justices to come about to you."

"I... do..." Silver asked with a confused tone and an even more confused face. For a brief moment of hope, Silver thought that maybe Blaze wasn't cast to a different dimension like he was told. Maybe she was just sent to another time, sort of like he was, and she did have memory of him and knew all about this trail. Maybe Blaze was...

"Yes." the Duke of Soleanna told him, sending Silver out of his wistful daydream, "The princess has given you special pardons under one condition."

"The princess...?!" Silver inquired in absolute surprise as he gave the little girl a dumbfounded look. In return, the Princess gave the hedgehog a rather smart smirk that illustrated that she knew what she had done.

"You hurt me." the Princess told Silver, not sounding very upset about it. "But you can hurt others just as well. I want you as my body guard- it will be your community service after destroying the community."

Silver flinched at the tone of her voice- this kid was not only physically harsh, but verbally too...

"Thank you for the opportunity, your highness," Silver told the Princess as his hands shook from justified anxiety. "I would be honored to take up the job of being your body guard."

For the first time, the young princess gave Silver a genuine smile. Slowly, and a bit awkwardly, Silver smiled back. Maybe they just got off on the wrong foot earlier, and this was how they were going to repair that first meeting. At least, that's what _he_ planned on doing.

Much later, as Princess Elise walked down a familiar road with Silver not far behind, she suddenly turned around and almost made him run into her. Her young face looked quite smug, yet concerned about something that she was thinking of.

"You know I saved your life." she told him, not with attitude or sounding as boastful as she wanted it to be. She seemed almost genuinely upset that such a fate almost came to him- and the idea had burned into her mind so badly that she had to make sure he knew that.

"I am aware." Silver admitted, his voice unintentionally cracking from stress. Elise looked at him and gave him a curt little nod before starting to walk again. Silver followed close behind but said nothing else as they continued to walk along. At first, the two walked a good distance apart from each other, but as time went on they started to walk closer together, and soon after they walked next to each other at the same pace.

"I don't know you very well," Elise said in such a soft tone that Silver could barely hear her, "But I know I can trust you. Is... is that weird?"

Silver turned to look at the Princess with a curious look, and for a moment, he didn't see a prim and proper princess who had a good abundance of defiance in her- he saw a sheltered and confused little girl who secretly wanted a friend. And for a moment, Silver could have seen himself in her, and it almost terrified him.

"It's not weird," Silver then told her, "It's called trust. It takes a lot of faith to have trust in someone you don't know and could have possibly hurt you. Thank you, by the way. My friend had a lot of trust in me before I came here, and I fear I've let her down. But..."

"But, what?" Elise asked, turning her head to look at him curiously.

"But... I think this is what she would have wanted for me."

"To be a body guard for a princess?"

"No," Silver said as he shook his head, "To make a new friend."

At this, Elise stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Silver with wide eyes. The hedgehog stared back at her with a small but kind smile.

. . .

_Present Day_

Silver held on to the Scepter of Darkness as tightly as he could as he ran to Sonic's hut in search of Elise. To his horror, neither of them were there. Sticks came in behind him not long after and assessed the scene quickly.

"No..." Silver said as his heart fell. Sticks took one look at Silver's distressed face and started to sniff around the room like a dog without warning. Silver looked at her in a mix of confusion and hopelessness.

"He doesn't have them," Sticks reported as continued to sniff for clues, "She had a vision and... and Sonic decided to take her some where..."

"Where?" Silver asked after letting out a sigh of relief knowing Mephiles didn't take them. Sticks stopped sniffing the air for a moment to look at Silver.

"You believe me?" she asked. Silver nodded eagerly. A split second later, Sticks was latched onto Silver in a rather heartfelt hug.

"No one's ever believed me before!" Sticks said happily as she pulled out of the hug.

"I trust you." Silver told her honestly. "If you know where they are, I'll follow you wherever you go."

Sticks looked at Silver with utmost gratitude- then she slapped him across the face.

"What was that for?" Silver asked in pain as he rubbed his now very red cheek.

"I'm making sure this isn't a dream!"

"Aren't you supposed to slap yourself?"

"I... knew that." Sticks said indifferently. Silver, however, wasn't too convinced but kept it to himself. He had to find Elise before Mephiles could- not that he knew he was already too late...


	9. Struggle

Although Sonic had not planned it that way, Elise had fallen back to sleep but on him. Her head was almost as large as his body was long, and yet the human was able to find a comfortable position to believe she was safe enough to allow her body to relax again. Sonic didn't relax as easily. It wasn't until he could hear Elise's soft and calming breaths that he found a way to be comfortable enough to relax and drift off into a dreamless sleep.

Mephiles had seen it all, and it tickled his fancy with supreme power. Iblis was making this a lot easier than what it should have been- just one shot, one little action that no one would be aware of until the next morning, then Mephiles and Iblis could be together again. Except for one minor detail...

"Ah, Silver, I've been waiting for you." Mephiles said coldly as he turned to see the hedgehog with the Scepter of Darkness clutched tightly in his hand. "You came alone too. Pity. I wanted to see you and your badger friend take me on... Still playing hero then? You know how well that works for you and your... unfortunate acquaintances."

"Shut up!" Silver demanded as he clenched his fists tighter. "If you dare touch her Mephiles, so help me, I'll...!"

Mephiles slowly put a gnawed finger to his lips. Or, at least, where his lips should have been if he had them.

"You'll wake them." Mephiles said softly as he motioned toward Sonic and Elise. Silver gave Mephiles a hard look before looking around him to notice Sonic and Elise together. Elise was facing upwards, almost like she had been staring at the stars while on Sonic's stomach. Sonic was also facing up toward the sky- while one hand was on Elise's head like he was stroking her hair to comfort her, the other was placed on one of Elise's hands with their fingers intertwined together. It looked rather awkward, but the two had some how had gone to sleep regardless. Silver looked back to Mephiles and gave the demon a hard, threatening stare.

"If you touch either of them Mephiles, I am going to make you wish you could die!" Silver threatened through a clenched jaw.

"With the abilities that _I_ gave to you? I didn't take you to be that naïve." Mephiles replied with a disturbing chuckle that send a chill up Silver's spine. The demon looked up at the sky as it slowly started to shade red from the sunrise.

"If only the sun was as generous as you are." Mephiles said to Silver, sounding both upset and angered. "But, I suppose we can't stare at each other forever. Enjoy this sunrise Silver, by tomorrow it will be the last you ever see."

Before Silver could react, Mephile started to melt away into the ground and disappeared from view. Immobile for a few seconds in stupidity, Silver then rushed over to Elise and attempted to wake her up. The human did not respond at first- leading Silver to force her to sit up to make her wake up. Eventually, he was able to barely get her to come around.

"Who... who are you?" Elise groggily asked as she came in and out of consciousness.

"Elise, it's me, Silver." the hedgehog told her as he kept trying to get her out of sleep. Finally, Elise was fully conscious and she looked at Silver as if she were in pain.

"I knew that." she mumbled.

"Don't lie to me Elise, I know you didn't!" Silver told her, roughly taking hold of her shoulders. Elise gave Silver a scared and mildly confused look.

"What happened?" Elise asked, knowing that there was more to the conversation that what she knew. "You need to let go of me- you're hurting me."

"I'm not letting go!" Silver declared with panic. Elise gave him an even more confused look that made Silver shake his head in remorse. In respect, Silver took a few steps back from Elise who was now giving him a wary side glance. Sonic was still asleep, completely oblivious to what was going on and would likely never know.

"I need to talk to you about something serious Elise." Silver said after regaining his composure.

"I'm not leaving Sonic here alone." Elise told Silver simply. It was Silver's turn to give Elise a weird look. Then something clicked in his brain that made him groan at her. But this wasn't the time or place to address it and what Silver needed to tell her was more important.

"We won't go far." Silver promised. "But we need to talk about this immediately."

Elise nodded. Silver helped her get up and together they walked a fair distance away from Sonic before beginning their discussion further. Before they began, Silver pulled out the Scepter of Darkness.

"Do you know who this is for?" Silver asked her. Elise looked at the small staff and opened her mouth to say, but found that she could not.

"No..." she slowly said. Silver saw the wheels turning in her eyes and knew that she did, but something was stopping her.

"Remember how you said that it seemed like you were fighting to remember me?" Silver then asked. Elise looked at him and nodded. "Fight again. Fight to remember who the Scepter of Darkness is for!"

Elise gave Silver a wary look, but nodded to show she understood. Elise then closed her eyes and tried to concentrate as she racked her brain on any information about Mephiles. Her struggle was like trying to see through a big brick wall, it was akin to controlling a dream to prevent it from becoming a nightmare with all effort that never seemed to shine through. The mental strain Elise had to use made her dizzy and made her head threaten to pound out of her skull. She didn't know or realize it, but Elise had ended up on the ground with Silver as a support to make sure she didn't completely cripple over in pain.

"Mephiles is... Solaris." Elise squeaked as her memories forcefully stitched themselves together again. "The Scepter is to... is to trap Mephiles and... destroy him. Mephiles wants to... to see Iblis again. Iblis is... is in me, and is trapped until I... cry...? Mephiles tried to... tried to destroy... to destroy...!"

Elise slipped from Silver's grip as she suddenly fell over from the strain of breaking Iblis's wall over her memories. Silver reacted quickly and helped her sit back up again. Blood was dripping from the end of her nose in small, thick drops and she looked up at him with a pale and exhausted face.

"Are you alright?" Silver softly asked her.

"No..." Elise groaned. "Can I die now?"

Before Silver could answer, Sonic came over to them quickly and assessed the situation himself.

"Is... there a problem I need to be aware of?" the blue hedgehog asked with a hint of scorn.

"No." Elise and Silver said at the same time. Sonic glanced from one to the other, unsure of their honesty although there was nothing to hide. Silver looked at Sonic, then looked at Elise who glanced back at him.

"Go to Meh Burger with Sonic," Silver instructed Elise, "Get a milkshake or a super greasy double cheeseburger, anything. Just... relax. Smile. Have fun. We can talk more later if you want."

"You'll come later, right?" Elise asked him. Silver gave her a rather shocked look as if he wasn't expecting someone to ask, but he slowly started to nod his head.

"Maybe." he told her. "But don't hold me to it."

"Well, if we're going any where it'll be easier to carry you." Sonic then interjected to Elise. "If... if you don't mind of course."

"I don't mind." Elise agreed with a smile. "It was actually kind of fun earlier."

Sonic's face started to burn a deep red color before he scooped Elise up and left with Silver behind. Silver watched them as Sonic reached his top speed. Out of curiosity and in a sudden idea- Silver looked down to look at his shadow. A pit in his stomach made him snap his head back up and started to head back.

He now knew his shadow was not his own, and Mephiles was literally following his every step.

With Silver around, no one was safe. The struggle to keep Elise happy had just begun.


	10. Amy Has a NOTP Too

Elise sat back with her milkshake and listened to the conversations Sonic and his friends were having. It was unfiltered, rude, threatening, and heavily sarcastic- but it wasn't without meaning, or reference to some inside joke. It rather amazed her, as a third person, to see them treat each other in a rather abusive way that was completely understood as joking. It made her think- it made her want to break more of Iblis's wall on her memories. But, as she concentrated more of the invisible wall than on the conversations, Elise slowly came to realize that Iblis's wall only went so far in her memory- unless it involved Silver, who Iblis purposely tried to write out. In fact, everything she couldn't remember was beyond the day that...

"So Elise, you've been rather quiet." Knuckles said, speaking directly to her in a way that nearly made her jump. "There something you want to tell us?"

"Huh?" Elise replied as she looked around. "Oh, um, no not really."

"Okay." Knuckles replied. "Just wondering."

"However," Amy said, jumping in at the opportunity to get nosey, "What's with you and Silver? Are you _friends_, or _more_ than that?"

Sonic, who had been minding his own business while eating a cheeseburger, almost choked on what he was eating. He went unnoticed, however, and Elise thought about her answer before saying it.

"Silver is my friend." Elise said with a small so-so shrug.

"That's not what I'm asking you." Amy insisted. "Are you and Silver currently seeing ea-"

"Amy!" Sonic quickly said in a mix of anger and panic. This time, everyone did pay him mind and gave him a rather odd look. Sonic felt himself start to shrink below the table with embarrassment. "I'm just saying... maybe she can't remember that much."

"Sonic has a point Amy." Tails then said. "Maybe Elise can't remember anything other than Silver being her friend."

"Oh I do." Elise told them with a rather serious face. "But Silver was my friend before anything else. He was my guardian, and he's never let me down once. Silver's not perfect though, and most of his decisions are horrible- but once he sets his mind to something, there isn't anything he wouldn't do to achieve it."

"And his relationship with you?" Amy then inquired, almost starting to sound distinctly bitter.

"Platonic." Elise said.

"Is that why you're hanging out with Sonic instead?" Amy then asked. The resulting reaction made several citizen not withing the conversation turn around and stare at them; Sonic and Knuckles had stood up suddenly- Sonic was in surprise and Knuckles's had been to set Amy down should she choose to attack. Tails had jumped away from the table and nearly knocked over the busboy in an attempt to run away before things got ugly. Elise's face had gone into a rather confused and slightly humored look as she gave Amy an odd side glance.

"Would you like to come along when we spend time together?" Elise asked, not quite sure what Amy was getting at. "I wouldn't mind if you did, if that's what you're concerned about."

Amy's cheeks started to glow red as she started to give her rebuttal, but was interupted by the sudden appearance of Doctor Eggman in his hovercraft. No one was amused to see him.

"Ah, Princess Elise is it?" Eggman said directly to Elise with a small bow, "It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance at last."

"I don't know you." Elise said in a low tone. Taking the cue, Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, and Tails went into a defensive position in waiting for Eggman to attack.

"No, but I know your friend Silver." the mad doc told her calmly and quite simply. "In fact, without me, he wouldn't have found you any way. So really, when you think about it, we're almost on even ground."

Elise shook her head as she started to get up from the table and backed away from Eggman.

"I don't trust you." she told him. Eggman gave a little sigh as if he had expected this. Surely enough he had, and Orbot and Cubot were behind Elise to prevent her from going anywhere else. Eggman, likewise, was not going to back down any time soon.

"You've hurt my feeling Princess." Eggman told her. "Too bad you're going either way."

In a moment of surprise and unexpected speed, Eggman flew his hovercraft to Elise, scoped her up in one swing, and started to fly away toward his lair. Eggman let down a magnet so Orbot and Cubot would come along as well.

"Good bye!" Cubot said to the rest cheerily enough as they flew away. Sonic was the first to react, and almost started to run after them before being stopped by Amy.

"Amy, what are you doing?" Sonic asked. "We have to get her!"

"'We' don't have to do anything." Amy told him, sounding quite blunt with a rather unreadable face, "She said Silver is her guardian, right? Well, then maybe we should tell him so he can go get her. You heard Eggman- with Silver he wouldn't have known about Elise, so it's going to be Silver that gets her."

Sonic looked at Amy, almost as if she was nuts but he knew there was truth in what she was saying. But Silver wasn't the one that totally just let Eggman get away right now...

. . .

"And you let him get away with it?!" Silver questioned in justified anger. "Eggman knows that Elise has a horrible power in her, and he can find a way to force it out! Thank you, for telling me by the way, but what were you thinking just letting him get away like that?!"

"It was Amy's idea." Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all said at the same time while pointing an accusing finger at the pink hedgehog. Silver turned to look at her with almost the same expression she was giving him. He then walked up to her and gave her an intimidating and very nasty glare.

"If Doctor Eggman gets Iblis out of Elise, you can _forget_ about your fairy tale romance with the blue moron. Permanently. Got it?" Silver told Amy in such a low tone that Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles couldn't hear. Amy looked at Silver as she slowly came to realize what she had done.


	11. Mephiles Takes the Stage

To be honest, Eggman wasn't quite sure what he was going to do if Elise didn't obey him right away. It's not like Silver had warned him or anything that the girl was this stubborn- not that Eggman had asked to begin with, but that minor detail is best saved for later.

"Tell me how to free you from your demon." Eggman said sweetly in an attempt to coax Elise. She was buying it, nor was she going to tell him much either.

"Do you even realize what you're saying?" Elise asked him with justified anger. "Iblis is dangerous- the only one he _may_ listen to is Mephiles. What makes you think you can control him if he comes roaring out of my soul like a hungry lion?"

"As long as Sonic is destroyed, I really don't care." Eggman declared with a shrug and the smugness of a preppy rich girl. Elise rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Idiot." she mumbled.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Eggman then declared, "I have a PhD!"

"Bought second hand at the black market, or earned from actual hard work?" Elise spat with distrust.

Eggman was about to answer her in a matter-of-fact way, but was interrupted by the alarms on the defense system. A nearby television came down to show that Sonic, his friends, and Silver were making their way through Eggman's lair at a rather fair speed. Most of it was due to Silver's telekenetic abilities, but either way they were coming at a rate that would have brought them into the room within a few minutes. Elise turned to look at Eggman with a satisfied little smirk.

"Ha." she declared smugly. Eggman growled at her and immediately called for several of his robots to attack her from hidden panels in the room. Quickly enough, Elise was surrounded as the robots prepared to fire.

"Ha." Eggman said back to her with an even more smug voice. As Eggman's robots fired at Elise, a sliver of light appeared near her that blinded Eggman for a moment, then went out to reveal that Elise was no longer within line of fire. Confused and angered, Eggman looked around for the girl to find that she and apparently Silver were not that far away, safe from the robots Eggman had sicked on Elise.

"So that's the reason I don't do that often..." Silver said, mostly to himself, while both he and Elise looked rather sick. "Severe head rush... yowza..."

Recovering fairly quickly, Silver helped Elise back on her feet as Sonic and team came through the door. One look at the situation and the Sonic Team were in full battle mode as they smashed Eggman's robots to bits and pieces. Among the natural chaos of the fight, no one noticed as Silver's shadow detached and started to twist and form itself into Mephiles.

The demon took a look around the room and let out a chuckle that sent a chill up everyone's spine before they turned to look at him.

"Enough of these childish games." Mephiles decreed as he gave a wave of his hand. Without much warning, Eggman's robots flew out of the room and out the window with a sickening crash and crunching metal.

"Do you know how much those robots cost?!" Eggman hollered in rage. Mephiles slowly turned his head to look at the mad doc.

"We have no use for you now." Mephiles said in a low tone before giving a flick of his finger. Not a second later, Eggman was lifted off the ground and thrown out the window like his robots before him. Unlike the robots, there was no indication on whether he made a safe landing or not. Mephiles then turned to Amy, Tails, and Knuckles.

"All the world's stage, and we are all merely players," Mephiles told them in a rather bored way, "But you outlived your already limited screen time. Adieu."

With that, Mephiles then made another wave of his hand and the trio were also thrown out the window without so much a second glance. The demon's cold eyes then turned to face Sticks, who, unlike the others, made a stance to show she was going to fight.

"Ah, Cassandra of Troy, we meet in the flesh at last." Mephiles said to her in a different tone than before that was no less chilling. "It was quite interesting how you knew I was there, even when Silver could not. Remind me, if you are still alive, to thank whoever cursed you. Without your stunning abilities to predict what others are too foolish to see, I would have been discovered much earlier than I wanted."

Sticks growled before she made a daring leap toward Mephiles. The demon was not impressed and stopped her in midair. Sticks's eyes widened as Mephiles carelessly gave a flick of his wrist, which sent Sticks out the window as well. Now only Sonic, Silver, and Elise remained with the demon. Taking a quick glance from Mephiles to Elise, Sonic prepared to go into a spin dash to attack Mephiles. Silver took the cue and started to use his powers to manipulate whatever was available in Eggman's lair to pummel Mephiles at higher speeds than Sonic could ever achieve. Laughing as he was being attacked, Mephiles slowly started to succumb to the attacks until he finally went down.

Taking a breath, Silver and Sonic turned to check on Elise at the same time. She was pale, her eyes were glossed over and looking to be staring off at something in the distance, and she certainly wasn't responding.

"Elise!" Silver and Sonic both exclaimed in a panic as they rushed over to her.

_They're all dead..._

"Elise!"

_I could have saved them..._

"Elise, answer me now!"

_Be a strong queen, Elise. Always smile, and never cry..._

In a moment that almost froze time, Mephiles started to laugh once again. Silver immediately started to get up and race toward Mephiles, while Sonic remained at Elise's side in panic. Mephiles laughed as he raised his hand to let a beam of light come out in the form of a saber. Silver saw it and almost immediately knew who it was aimed at. Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic also saw who Mephiles aimed at and closed his eyes in preparation.

A flash of light covered the room, and when it was gone the fate of the world had been decided.

"No!" Mephiles growled when he saw the outcome for himself.

Although Mephiles had aimed at Sonic, Silver had teleported to Sonic to get him out of harm's way and the two were now far from where Mephiles had aimed at. Sonic, who was almost sure he was going to get struck, looked around in confusion before looking at Silver.

"I... I could've died!" Sonic exclaimed in astonishment. Mephiles let out a low growl that became a threatening roar.

"No...!" Mephiles screamed. With another frustrated and deeply angered growl, Mephiles turned to Elise and practically screamed at her, "Iblis, you are strong enough now! Break that damned seal yourself!"

Elise stared at Mephiles with a blank stare before she let out a screech of pain. Elise held to her head with a mass amount of pain as she fell to the floor like a stone dropping in water. The concerned shouts from Silver and Sonic went unheard in Elise's ears, and the world went dark into a black nothing.


	12. Things We Lost

Soleanna was on fire. Elise sat on the deck of the small ship feeling numb and lacking any senses- it was like this was all a dream, a bad one, and she was going to wake up any moment now. But she knew all too well that it wasn't, and the screams of her friends left behind on Soleanna haunted her as she just sat there and stared.

Silver was purposely trying not to look at the city's destruction. Anything on the small ship he could adjust or redirect, he did it just so he did could ignore what was going on behind them. The screams from the men, women, and children back on Soleanna could not be drowned out as easily, and it led Silver to shiver when one would reach an apex from being burned alive.

"I failed." Elise softly said, her voice cracking a little from the smoke she and Silver had to fight through before getting on the boat. Silver stopped busying himself to turn to look at her. "They're all dead... and it's all my fault."

"There was nothing we could do." Silver told her. Elise didn't seem to respond to him and only looked back at the destruction.

"I was their Princess, I could have saved them. It was my job to save them! And I failed... all of them... I failed..."

Silver bit his lower lip, unsure of what to say to make her feel better. He had a vague feeling that whatever he could say wouldn't make her better, so it was almost useless to even try to pull her out of her depression. He had to though, if Mephiles found her in this state, then their deaths would be a lot more horrifying than what the citizens of Soleanna were experiencing.

"Elise," Silver started to say as he went to sit in front of her. "Elise, look at me."

The Princess refused to look at the hedgehog, so carefully he put a finger under her chin and made her look at him. Her face was red and puffy, almost as if she had been crying but there were no tears on her face, nor any indication that any had been there.

"I should have died, not them." Elise told him, "I could have saved them! My friends should be here and I should be there burning to death!"

"Elise, if you died back there it wouldn't have mattered if the others made it out of the city or not." Silver told her, not quite sure if he was being reassuring or not. "I know you understand that. I know you understand that this was the only choice we had. Are you hearing me Elise? I need to know that you're listening to me right now."

Elise chose to make her eyes focus on him. She gave him a blank stare- she wanted so much to cry and let the universe have at it with what came after.

"Do you think you failed her?" the Princess asked Silver in a toneless voice. Silver wanted to be surprised at her question, but found that he was asking himself the same question. The hedgehog put a hand on her head and started to softly stroke her hair with a shaking hand.

"Yes."

. . .

"My lair!" Eggman bemoaned as Solaris's true form ripped through the steel lair like it was tissue paper.

"We fell from a ridiculously high height, some how survived, now a sun god is restored to his true form, and you're worried about your _lair_?!" Sticks demanded in fury, nearly leaping on top of the mad doctor in rage.

"Everyone has their priorities." Eggman said with a shrug of indifference. Sticks uttered a low growl before attempting to maul him, but was stopped in mid-jump from Knuckles. In his grip, Sticks struggled and kicked like a child in the middle of a horrendous tantrum.

Tails shook his head, unsure of what to do, and looked back at Eggman's lair. A distinct blue streak of light came from out of Eggman's lair and headed toward them at a great speed.

"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed with surprise as said hedgehog came to a dead stop in front of him. Sonic then looked around at the rest of the group with a pale face and nearly relieved expression.

"You guys are alive!" Sonic said in so much surprise that it almost sounded like a question. Before anyone could answer him, Sonic gave Amy a hug then soon after pulled Tails in as well.

"Sonic," Amy said kindly as she and Tails tried to get away from Sonic's rather awkward hug, "I love hugging as much as the next hedgehog, but what's going on?"

"Yeah," Tails agreed, "Where's Silver and Elise?"

Sonic backed off of them and hesitantly looked back toward Eggman's lair. Solaris was slowly starting to open a black hole in the sky. The black hole was going to suck the entire universe into it piece by piece until Solaris had the wasteland he wanted to start over again and recreate the world in flames. Sonic went pale looking at it, then turned to his friends and Eggman again.

"I need your help." Sonic told them all.

"Would you like this?" Sticks spoke up, holding up that remarkable blue gem that Elise had brought in with her just a day before. "It might help a little, or something. You know, in case the demon plans on taking our souls next."

Sonic looked at Sticks with a side glance as he carefully took the gem from her. Once in contact with his hands, the gem started to glow brighter and felt warm to his touch. It almost felt as if the gem had chose him to harness its power, but that's ridiculous... isn't it?

"Go fight the bad guy," Eggman then said, skipping a lot of dialog the writer wanted to put in before he spoke up. "Not no way, not no how I'm going back up there."

"Fine." Sonic told his long time enemy coldly. "Stay here. I don't care what you do. But if we fail, then there will be nothing left. And by now, I think it's safe to say that Solaris isn't going to let anyone live after what he has planned."

Eggman took a glance up at the black hole Solaris had made as it started to grow in size. The mad doc flinched to think of what could be on the other side, and he sure as heck didn't want to find out either.

"I'm coming along." Eggman then decided. "To help Foxy operate his... whatever-it-is-he-has."

"It's Tails." the two-tailed fox told the doc tonelessly.

"That's what I said!" Eggman claimed. Tails folded his arms, obviously not buying it. But this wasn't the time for minor arguments- Solaris had to be stopped. Now.


	13. The Chrysalis of Soleanna

Silver took a stand against Solaris as the sun god ripped the sky open for his own pleasure. The sight made Silver sick and furious, among other emotions that riddled through his adrenaline at the time. Taking a glance back at Elise, who was either dying or in a coma, Silver turned to face Solaris with the Scepter of Darkness clenched tightly in his hand.

"Hit me!" Silver demanded as loud as he could toward the god. "You've taken Blaze, you'll take Elise, you took me away from my home and plan on destroying it all! Why all the roundabout? Kill me now, you have no excuse!"

Solaris turned to look at Silver. The sun god had no face, but one was not needed to show that he had no regard for Silver. Solaris drew some of his power to hurl a meteor toward Silver with all intent of not missing the mark. Silver's abilities were more powerful than what Solaris anticipated, and the hedgehog stopped the meteor with a single thought.

"Hey Solaris!" Silver shouted as he increased the potential velocity of the meteor, "Catch!"

Acting as if he was tossing a baseball, Silver hurled the meteor back at Solaris with as much force as he could give. The meteor hit Solaris at a weak point and the sun god let out a screech in pain. Silver gave a rather satisfied smirk in pride to know that the force from the meteor had hurt Solaris in some degree.

"What'd I miss?" Sonic asked, appearing next to Silver from a blur.

"Did you get your friends?" Silver asked, not at all amused from Sonic's sudden reappearance, then again, he was upset that Sonic had left to begin with.

"They're like dial-up compared to me, you'll have to give them a few more minutes." Sonic told Silver with a smirk. "But I got something that will help us weaken Solaris while we wait."

Silver nodded as he and Sonic started to work together to weaken Solaris. Solaris fought back as well, but knew better than to hurl rather large objects at them again thanks to Silver. The sky blue gem Sticks had given Sonic helped to compensate for the loss. Together, Silver and Sonic were able to weaken Solaris to nearly half of his original health by the time the rest of Sonic Team and Eggman were able to come in to help.

"Where do we start?" Amy asked as she pulled out her hammer. Sticks also withdrew her boomerang to show that she was ready to start fighting as well.

"Find a weak spot, and smash it!" Silver demanded. Amy nodded and went to work. With all of Sonic Team present, Solaris was soon being attacked in every direction imaginable. Eventually, the black hole above Solaris in the sky started to shrink, and the sun god himself slowly started to descend back to the ground. For once, Silver felt relieved. But Solaris wasn't finished yet.

"Princess... Elise..." the sun god said in a dark tone the shook Eggman's lair at its foundation, "Chrysalis of Soleanna... push aside your soul and let a new master reign!"

As if commanded by invisible strings, Elise roughly started to stand up and looked up at Solaris with eyes lacking pupils or color.

"No...!" Silver said as his face completely drained of color.

"Solaris, Soul of Soleanna," Elise started to say in a voice that was completely unlike hers, "I-"

"Elise fight him!" Silver demanded with enough panic that it could be felt to everyone in the room. "You fought for your memories, and you _will_ fight for your soul! Do you hear me?!"

Elise took a step back as she closed her eyes for a moment.

"I..." she said painfully before her eyes snapped open again as if they were being forced, "I must..."

With a maniacal snicker, Solaris made a dive toward Elise. Thinking quickly, Sonic looked at the sky blue gem, then threw it in Elise's direction. Elise caught it just before Solaris collided into her- the gem absorbed Solaris and broke him into two once more, allowing only Iblis back inside Elise. Mephiles was nothing more than a black fog at her feet as Silver walked up with the Scepter of Darkness in hand.

"Enough is enough Mephiles." Silver said as he held the Scepter close to the shadow demon.

"Even if you trap me," the demon hissed, "She will still have to fight. The pieces of Solaris will reunite, no matter what universe we reside in!"

"And I'll be waiting." Silver promised darkly before beginning the incantation that would absorb Mephiles into the Scepter of Darkness for good. Satisfied for a little while, Silver then turned to look at Elise who had started to have convulsions. Instantly, Silver's mind went back into a panic as Elise fell backwards. He took hold of her hands in a small act to soften her land on the ground, there the human girl twitched and twisted like she was being possessed. In a way, she almost was.

"Come on Elise," Silver said softly, "Fight him."

. . .

_To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become a paradise. What a wonderful world such would be..._

_. . ._

_I'm losing all control again, a paradox that never ends. I'm bound to what they've made of me, and tied to their authority. I'm fighting off the demons, but they just keep on wining... _

_Only I know how to brave what's inside of me!_

_. . ._

It was on my seventh birthday that my father led that fateful experiment on the living flame we called Solaris. I knew that what he was doing was wrong, and that was why I came into his lab at the worst of times. The only memories Iblis could completely keep from me where the ones after that day, I fought to keep the ones of Silver although Iblis wanted it differently.

I fought then, and I'm fighting now.

This is my soul. This is my body. This is my life. These are _my_ memories.

So, thank you Solaris, I'm free. I can cry freely for the first time in ten years. I don't have to worry about a demon coming to harm me or the ones I hold dear. For the first time in ages I... I'm normal.


	14. Home

"Whew, that fight was exhausting." Eggman said as he stretched his back.

"_You_ didn't do anything!" Tails said in an extremely aggravated tone. "_I_ was the one that piloted your robots to attack!"

"I know." Eggman agreed carelessly. "It was _so exhausting_ watching you six fight. And after the repairs I need to make to my once glorious lair, I'm gonna have to take a break for a week!"

"But you...!" Tails started to say, then shook his head in defeat. "Never mind..."

Not everyone was paying attention to them, and once they were done their momentary bickering they looked to see what everyone else was interested in. It was Elise, unsurprisingly, since she had absorbed Iblis into her not long before. Her involuntary twitching and convulsions had ceased and now she lay on the ground with everyone staring to wait for her to wake up again.

"Oh, I just had an idea!" Knuckles suddenly said. "Since she's a princess, maybe she needs to be woken up with a kiss. You know, like in fairy tales!"

"I highly doubt that would work." Amy said as she folded her arms. Sonic, who stood near Elise, curiously tilted his head, then slowly started to move closer to her. Silver, who was also close to Elise, saw what Sonic was about to do and in quickly finding a blunt object, telepathically tossed it as hard as he could at Sonic's head.

"Ow..." Sonic said, almost sounding upset as he rubbed his head. "What was that for?"

"If you honestly thought that could work, I think Iblis did more than enough damage to your subconscious that you need to be aware of." Silver told him darkly.

From the ground, Elise finally started to move and give indication that she was going to be alright. With a groan, Elise started to open her eyes and looked around the room. When her eyes fell on Silver then on Sonic, she gave a dazed little smile.

"I'm not dead." Elise remarked. Each taking one of her hands, Sonic and Silver helped Elise sit up. Elise winched a little in pain, but otherwise proved to be fine.

"So Elise," Sonic casually said, "Your soul is no longer bound to a fire demon, what are you going to do next?"

"Well..." the human decided, "I'd kinda like to have a bonfire..."

. . .

The red glow of the sunset never felt so welcoming. Keeping distance away from the others, Silver had snuck a bag of marshmallows and was eating them alone and in peace. Finally, a break that wouldn't break him in return. Silver observed the Sonic Team tease each other before realizing that Elise was not with them. Curious, but choosing not to be concerned, Silver scanned the area and found that she was sitting closer to the shore at a place where the crashing waves would just barely touch her uncovered toes.

"Hey you," Silver said as he walked up to her, "You wanted this bonfire, why are you not enjoying it?"

At first, Elise did not answer as Silver sat down beside her.

"I can't go back." she quietly said. "There's nothing there but smoke and ash."

Silver popped a marshmallow in his mouth and listened, although she seemed to not acknowledge him to begin with.

"Even if I was able to rebuilt the machines for some source of income... I can't bring back all those people that died in my care... I can't even call myself a princess any more. I don't have anything to rule or govern. I'm... I'm just a normal girl now. A lost, homeless, normal girl..."

Silver looked at Elise as he swallowed his marshmallow. He then looked at the bag of marshmallows, he picked a big, fat one out, and he playfully tossed it as Elise's cheek. This seemed to get her out of whatever state of mind she was in as she rubbed her cheek.

"Ow." she remarked, although it hadn't hurt her at all, "What was that for?"

"Let's start this conversation by saying that you need to stop with that 'I' business, it's 'we.'" Silver told her. "Secondly, if you choose to live somewhere else besides Soleanna, I will follow you where ever you go."

"But-" Elise started to say, but was cut off my Silver.

"Close your eyes." Silver told her. Elise gave the hedgehog a wary side glance.

"I don't see how..."

"Just bear with me and close them, alright?"

With a sigh, Elise did as she was told and closed her eyes as Silver instructed.

"Now," she heard him say, "Does it really feel like anything has changed?"

The idea made Elise confused, but she sat back and listened. There were friendly conversations, friends enjoying each other's company, the waves gently crashing on the shore then tickling her feet, and then there was Silver's presence next to her. When Elise opened her eyes again, she was almost surprised to find that she wasn't in Soleanna.

"Like you said," Silver then said, "Soleanna is nothing more than smoke and ash right now. We can rebuild the machines, but we can't bring back lives, so... if you wanted to come back here once we had all that sorted out..."

Elise looked at Silver with wide eyes.

"You don't mean that!" she exclaimed with surprise. Silver looked back her with a smile the illustrated that he wasn't joking. Elise then changed her expression to be more subtle.

"So..." she started, "Do you think she'd be proud of you right now?"

Silver looked back at her and smiled.

"Most definitely, yes."

. . .

"There." Tails declared as he placed the Scepter of Darkness on a pedestal in the temple of the last Ancient. "Now no one will ever be able to find this again."

"And when Elise comes back, she'll have nothing to worry about." Sonic replied with a satisfied smile.

"Exactly." Tails agreed.

"Race you back!" Sonic suddenly declared.

"You're on!"

With that, the two raced out of the temple without a care in the world. But little did they know that someone else was in the temple, someone that they thought was once destroyed. Little did they know that this was just the beginning.


End file.
